Burnside Telecom, which makes 'desktop mobile phones', has announced that its P230 Easy Answer Desktop Mobile Phone is now available from The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). The phone combines the flexibility of a mobile phone with the familiarity and ease-of-use of a desktop telephone.

All that's needed is a SIM card and mains power supply.

Last month we spoke to Richard Kinder, Vice President of Technology and New Business at Red Bend Software. (You can listen to the podcast here or read an edited transcript here).

This week the company has announced that its Mobile Software Management solutions for over-the-air updates and device management have been shipped in a total of 750 million devices worldwide. In Q1 2010 its software was embedded in 70 million mobile phones and connected devices, which means nearly one in four new mobile handsets was 'Red Bend Enabled'.

Apple's new terms of service for application developers (released this week) appear to prohibit iPhone developers from sharing advertising data with AdMob and its new owner Google.

Although an "independent advertising service provider whose primary business is serving mobile ads" is permitted access to user data, others – such as "an advertising service provider owned by or affiliated with a developer or distributor of mobile devices, mobile operating systems or development environments other than Apple" – would not be allowed.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the US Agency for International Development (USAID) are encouraging the launch of financial services by mobile phone in Haiti, following the January earthquake. Fewer than 10% of Haitians had ever used a commercial bank before the disaster.

The two organisations say enabling Haitians to send, receive and store money using their mobile phones has the potential to dramatically improve their lives and leapfrog more conventional banking models to safer, more affordable alternatives.